For a long time I have been looking for an opportunity to tell about Yuli Tamm - a person unknown to the general public, who does a lot of good and deserves to be heard about.
We met by chance at least 25 years ago.
He worked as a security guard at a parking lot in Tel Aviv and I parked the car.
A particularly large guy approached the window, wearing a visor hat and speaking not very clearly.
After I paid for the parking, he asked me my name and after I answered, he asked for my phone number, because there is a possibility that he might want to contact me in the future.
I couldn't really understand what he was saying, and I had no intention of giving him my phone number, but for a reason that is not clear to me - maybe fear of the big guy, or a strong desire to get it over with and go my way - I did.
Many months after this strange meeting Yuli called me.
The number was unfamiliar to me, and again he mumbled something incomprehensible.
Contrary to my screwed-up nature of not remembering people I've met, in this case I was able to link the voice to the man in the parking lot.
He mumbled something about visiting sick children at Dana Hospital on Purim or Hanukkah and said that he was asking me to come. I made such visits at the time with the righteous Shmulik Viluzhni who would come every Friday to the hospital and make the children and parents laugh, and I took my daughters there several times so that they would receive Some proportions about life. Once again, and in a way that is not typical of me and my laziness, I found myself agreeing to come to a meeting with a person I don't know.
When I arrived, Yuli was waiting for me with other people I didn't know, wearing a black Adidas tracksuit, wearing a visor hat and carrying a huge cart full of sweets.
I tried to understand what exactly was happening and what my role was in the operation, but Yuli only mumbled something indistinct and I found myself walking with the group between the sick children's rooms and handing out toys and sweets to them.
It was a tiring and stressful meeting, at the end of which I returned home and just went to sleep.
Moving from room to room where sick children lie with their frightened parents and trying to give them a few moments of relief with a little interest and a smile exhausted me, but also filled me with a kind of satisfaction I had never known.
I asked Yuli what his story is and who finances the toys and sweets he distributes.
He muttered something indistinct again about how when he was a child he got sick and was hospitalized, and since then he vowed to visit the sick.
The sweets and toys are at his expense, and he gets them from all kinds of companies and friends.
Six months passed, and July rang again.
This time his number was already identified under the name Yuli Matadav Ichilov.
He invited me again to visit Dana and I tried to avoid.
I told him that I don't have time and that meeting sick children is hard on my soul.
No problem, he told me, so come to the day care oncologist at 11 in the morning, that's without children.
We met in the department, and he was standing again with a cart and an unimaginable amount of sweets.
We moved between the rooms, distributed the refreshments and I wondered to myself what exactly I was doing here and what the people connected to the chemotherapy tubes thought about it - what is this clown walking around here?
who does he think he is
And who exactly does he represent?
I didn't have clear answers to the questioning looks, but little by little I found that entering the rooms was actually received positively.
I learned to recognize with a quick glance which of the patients would like me to approach them for a short conversation and which ones are really out of the question.
The meetings became fascinating and I met people from all over the country, who come to Professor Wolf's department to try to recover from cancer.
I met friends and acquaintances that I didn't know were sick, those who came back again and again over the years or those who told me that they remembered me when I visited one of their parents who passed away and now they are sick themselves.
Meanwhile, Yuli has become a multi-pronged volunteer powerhouse.
His carts continued to grow and multiply, he established a WhatsApp group called "Giving from the Heart" which included all kinds of celebrities and non-celebrities who enlisted to help, and I also recruited at his request all kinds of friends from the music field who agreed to come and help in his regular meetings in the department.
Over the years Yuli got married and invited the first lady and me to his wedding in Netanya.
And even though I'm a condescending snob who doesn't like fur desserts and that my relationship with Yuli was limited to holiday get-togethers at the oncology clinic, we went to the wedding.
To this day I haven't been able to understand what exactly Yuli does in life, and when I asked him I didn't really get an answer, but from the inquiries I made, he is a simple ordinary person with a heart of gold.
When he heard about the activities of the association for lone soldiers run by my wife, he organized a lunch in Netanya for hundreds of soldiers by a pool, including barbecues, music and performances by singers, when he does everything together with his friends and without asking anyone for a dime.
This event has since become a tradition, and it has been held for at least the sixth year.
The Bottom Line?
There is no bottom line.
As Jacob Rotblit's poem essay, "Kachlot kol ve image" it is always important to ask, especially ourselves: "When was the last time you did something for someone?"
And Yuli does all the time, and a lot.
Another little story about a man from the settlement who has no organization or means behind him, who does not ask for money from anyone, and with a little help from good friends, more or less known, such as chef Segev Moshe, mentalist Shimi Atias, Shelly Gafni, Pablo Rosenberg, Danny Bassan and other friends, Does good for a lot of people.
yairn@israelhayom.co.il
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